http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7980048126&category=38634&sspagename=WDVW

I was just wondering if this intake is any good? Has anybody ever heard about it? Would it be easy to make a homemade intake for my 03 sunfire ecotec?
jordan

go aem, you won't be sorry


When changing gears in life, remember Find 'em, don't Grind 'em.
2003 Silver LS Sport Coupe 5-speed

aem is just selling you a shinny pipe with their logo on it then overchargin you for it. you can just go down to home depot and make your own cold air intake. all a cai does is moves your filter outside your engine bay so it pulls colder air. is that a good intake? looks good to me. email before you bid and make sure he has all the hardware and instructions just incase.


"Youre lucky that 100 shot of nos didnt blow the welds on your intake"
-Vin Diesel

AEM designed it for the car.

The reason im chosing it, cuse it wont rub on the hood and there countless years of designs.


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My Car Specs
Club J-Body Montreal Forums

I got a generic intake from AutoZone for $25 and it doesnt rub on the hood... it hasnt faln apart... it polished really nicely, and holds the polish... Works perfect. Although its a Short-Ram/WAI, and not a CAI... but still...

Its like a curve, find the happy medium.

If you go way too cheap, you get cheap stuff. If you get really super expensive, you may be getting quality parts, but you're also paying for the name. If you get somethign in the middle, you're good.

Quite honeslty if they say it is made for your car and it will fit theres no reason (that i see) that it wouldnt work.


-- The The One One --
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what about weapon R?? i heard it was one of the best intakes for the eco's?

I have a Vibrant Racing intake cost me $60 from a local shop. They can be found online too.

there is no best intake. all they are is just a pipe with a filter.
IMO i dont think a "Cold Air" intake is all that different from a warm air. besides from the obvious



Im a Xbox 360 fanboy...and damn proud of it!!

Aem intake for the ecotec sucks, it actually makes it slower then stock, the best intake to go with is the RKsport for the ecotecs, i dont know about the weapon r intakes but i got the secret intake for my 2200 and its really nice

I wouldn't get that particular ebay intake (OMZRacing short ram) because it's only half an intake. It attaches to the black plastic intake plenum (?) instead of the throttle body. And apparently that black plastic box bit accounts for a large amount of flow resistance. Also, it has an extra clamp joint that AEM or K&N wouldn't have. To me that's ugly, and only impedes flow. The parts don't appear to include a longer hose for your valve breather. Finally, the method of securing the intake from rattling around under the hood is 'uncertain'.

The AEM a buddy of mine has provided him with a decent gain. Anyway, some prefer brand name intakes while some prefer custom ghetto intakes. Whichever way and however deep your pockets may be, do what you feel is best. I prefer dyno tested and tuned intakes opposed to making my own. It's the same with exhaust... You can have custom, or one that's specifically designed for the car.

Custom I.E. exhaust shop like Meineke or whatever that just slaps a pipe on and you're good to go. There are some performance shops that make great custom exhausts!

I got an INJEN intake for my ECO (waiting to install) i paid more for a brand intake, just for the fact that the AEM and INJEN intake are 50 state legal



CaviFL45

Jon Hollars wrote:Aem intake for the ecotec sucks, it actually makes it slower then stock, the best intake to go with is the RKsport for the ecotecs, i dont know about the weapon r intakes but i got the secret intake for my 2200 and its really nice

OMG! ARE YOU KIDDING!

I dynoed 9hp from the one i have. And yes, there is a big difference between WAI and CAI. Warm air intakes allow you to rev higher, giving you more low end tourqe, but you tend to loose a little high end hp. cold air intakes will give you some lag on take off, but once you hit your power band you will get more hp and some tourqe.

IMO , the rksport intake sucks. you still have the s tube along with the accourdian fitting and the large air box on top of the throttle body, unless you get the wai, then it's ok.

I would personally stick with aem, besides. they have engineered the intake to work best for our cars.







New Picture comming this summer.

nothing personal or directto anyone.....but this is the EXACT reason why all this he said she said on intakes leads no where each time...

aem isnt the BEST...

lets face reality here, on some cars, rksport will dyno higher.

on other cars aem will dyno higher

on others weapon r will dyno higher

and on others people who have made their intakes will dyno higher.....


those are just straight facts.........

reason, true alot of research go into some, but when it boils down to it, each and every company has an add out saying THAT OUR INTAKE OUTPERFORMED THE REST in their adds.

so yea, in their testing, their intake was changed and manipulated to outperform the rest....TUNED ON A SINGLE CERTAIN CAR (sometimes 2 or 3)....

do all cars perform the same? NO.... some cars even in stock form dyno higher than the same car same engine owned by another person in stock form.

this doesnt mean that since aem dynoed on their test car at 9whp that you will get the same??? NO....you may only get 5. but by using the rksport you might get 7....

so really, saying one is better than the other, cant be applied to every car EVEN if it is the same year, same engine etc... no two engines run the same.. just because your car dynoed with 9 whp....big deal. dont get me wrong...thats great , def dont get me wrong, but i;ve seen 9whp gains come from an self made intake on a short ram. 9.1 to be exact. so you;ve paid 200-300$ for essentialy what some have bought for 60$ minus some stickers, and got the same results.

if buying brand name eases your mind, then by all means, buy it. hell i only buy moog ball joints and will travel near 50 miles to get a set. thats one of my pet peeves, but reality is, there have been others who bought duralast from autozone and they have outlasted my second set of moogs...



also short rams dont allow you to rev higher. you will rev the same no matter what intake you use unless there is a restriction in it... your computer sets the rev limit (unless outside computer limits it even more so).

you dont lose high end hp either just because one is shorter or longer, the way you dont get as much high end hp is if its not tuned for that resonance. its like headers. 4-2-1 headers offer more power lower in the band, but then the 4-1 headers from another company offer higher end hp, but then pacesetter made long tube 4-1 headers that offer the best of both worlds. (technically the best of both worlds for an intake would be a short ram with a heat sheild in this comparisson hint hint)



the things that matter with an intake are

air volume, density, velocity, and viscousity.... maximize the first three and minimize the last.


a shorter pipe means shorter distance and less bends. the more bends you have the more air or gasses slow down. quickest line from point A to point B is a straight line which will be the shortest.

a short ram gives quicker throttle response, because of less restriction in bends and simply a shorter distance to travel.

resonance will be a main determinant in power as at certain rpms.... and this comes into play with consideration of the TB size, the intake pipe diameter, as well as the length of the pipe. it will more or less, resonate enabling air to pass a bit quicker for a better gain.


but keep in mind, aem designed these intakes on stock cars, once one modifies the TB. you essentially can move yourself out of the zone, THAT IS if you car was even in the same zone to begin with. remember the intake was tested on one single car, or maybe 2 or 3 test cars...

ALL CARS DO NOT RUN THE SAME....

this is why dynoes are there, to make sure all your parts you add keep you in a certain power zone... not for bragging rights. reason i say this is because some on here have just went out and bought parts trying to replicate what this and that person has bought, then dynoed their car only to have 2000-3000$ in high priced mods and dynoed worse than the ones who spent next to nothing doing more simple things. hell some people on here add lbs upon pounds of suspension parts made for handling LATERALLY, but only intend to drag race in a straight line.... but they add it cause someone else did and its there. or it fills their registry list.

dynos WERE meant to guage and tune your car individually, but as of recent, its only been there for marketing and bragging rights. and it seems from some of the posts its working.


each person has to find what works best for THEIR CAR... there isnt a universal intake that magically is best for every single car out here. that honestly shouldnt even have to be said. to find out what works best for your car, and the other mods you have added, this is the time and reason to get a dyno done...


this isnt to say i mean self mades are the best, sometimes they are, and with some of the people who work on cars here (i;ve seen people pour brake fluid into the crankcase cause it felt like oil) , there are sometimes they DEFINATELY WILL NOT be.... some people need carb legal stickers, others dont..... so if you dont for example, and you can get the same gains from one you make yourself and have a slight idea how to do it, theres really no need to waste money....if you dont know anything about the 4-5 factors posted above, then you might have to pay a bit more for someone to make one for you.

but like said, no one intake is better than the rest, if you really believe there is some super dooper magical intake, reality awaits.

Very nicely said Muffins, the best intake is the smoothest route to the Throttle Body, unless you can get actual outside air directly to the Throttle Body.

But best of all is a ram air type intake, i have a direct air port on the lower driver side of my BMX body kit (all ports were modified by me, for direct outside air, the faster I go the more air will be forced into my TB).

Only thing you need to watch for is any deal that looks too good to be true on Ebay, it prolly isn't true.

For instance I bought a Bomex style body kit for my 03 cavalier, speant $500 on it. 7 layers hand laid aircraft quality fiberglass...

Turned out the company (which is based in China, so it took me 4 months to recieve my kit, but thats another story) bought an actual Bomex BMX body kit for $900 and used it as Master mold to make their own "knock offs", so what I got was a copy of a copy.
After an arse-load of specific modifications I had to trash the side-skirts they just were too horrible to use. Long story short, Watch carefully when purchasing anything off Ebay, 70% of the time you are getting a "knock off".

while true you must watch out on ebay, intakes are way less harder to mess up unlike a fiberglass body kit you can never really be sure its 7 layers until you get it.

and with ram air, def be careful on that. for ram air to occur, it has to over flow the amount the engine already takes in at WOT. remember, you have to go over the amount of cfms the engine already takes in, like forced induction (turbos and superchargers), to really get a gain.

two links to check out on this the first is a really decent read, the second one is more applied theory.

http://www.vetteguru.com/ramair/
http://www.snowgoercanada.com/tech_ram_air.shtml

as it stands most people do not even reach these speeds on street driven cars. nascar and F1/indy and a few road cars nearing 150 usually do as well

ram air as most get is basically air entering a box or velocity stack that depending on size of pipe and length, helps to create resonance at certain rpms easier than it would be without.

so it can offer a small gain, but not as how most think of it.

Again with a nice rebuttle, but RAM air or direct air intake is much better then other intakes for the simple fact u get direct air in closest to straight line as possible.

When you fill up a glass of water do you hold the glass sideways and catch water as it passes by?

Or do you hold it with the open end of the glass in direct flow of the water?

Kross wrote:Again with a nice rebuttle, but RAM air or direct air intake is much better then other intakes for the simple fact u get direct air in closest to straight line as possible.

When you fill up a glass of water do you hold the glass sideways and catch water as it passes by?

Or do you hold it with the open end of the glass in direct flow of the water?

good point, but on that note, read the first link on convergent and divergent nozzles

def agree on the straight line though

I don't agree with that article...

everything I have been taught about internal combustion engines tells me different stories then his does.

The static pressure which increases fuel/air combustion rate doesn't take place within the intake system, a higher air flow at time of fuel being introduced, then a swirling motion, causes a higher ionization rate, which burns fuel more proficiently. Static pressure is actually built up after ionization occures. So I am slightly confused with his method of "debunking the RAM AIR".

hes got an odd way of explaining it for sure. his method basically is along the lines of the more dense the air, the harder it is to cram.

in a nut shell, to have ram air, you have to overcome the amount of air that the engine takes in. it takes alot of speed to do so, avg cars at normal speeds dont even nearly reach this as most will easily have to clear 100mph to do so.

so basically unless you overcome what the car takes in normally or double the psi, like a turbo/superchargers do, you are getting your gains via resonance, and not air rammed in. the resonance effect which is minimal occurs through a certain rpm, and is depending on pipe size, length etc.

thats basically the gyst i got from this book http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0837601428/qid=1118889043/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-7607218-8874267?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

and http://www.lingenfelter.com/store/bk-g309.html

a few GM vehicles come with the label "ram air"..... but think about it. if ram air was extremely as effective as its made out to be, wouldnt it be utilized way more than it is now? it came on a few muscle cars, and even by design, the scoop should be as far forwards as possible on the hood, not far back in the middle, just on aerodynamics of how air flows over a hood.

and even then, most of the ram air setups dealers sell are not even direct. its always to an air box (remember what was said on resonance) where it creates the humming effect which at speed can acctually cram a few more cfms during a range of rpms. resonance is what makes the good mixture better slightly.

but like said, if ram air was as they say it is, it would be used on far more vehicles, especially with people trying to design setups that get good gas mileage.

I agree with the not TRUE ram air aspect, but I still think ram air is the best intake you can have without supercharging or turbo.

And, another thing about pressure, an intake is to deal only with air, so the static pressure isn't really accountable there.

Technically I don't want any pressure build up in my intake at all, I want more flow with cooler air.

But, back to the topic at hand, (we sort of bumrushed his thread) If you need a name brand intake then buy one, if not go to autozone and buy the parts to build your own for under $30. They have nice stainless tubing, generic or K&N filter on the end and flex tubing to go into your TB/MAF, not a bad set-up at all.

Kross wrote:I agree with the not TRUE ram air aspect, but I still think ram air is the best intake you can have without supercharging or turbo.

And, another thing about pressure, an intake is to deal only with air, so the static pressure isn't really accountable there.

Technically I don't want any pressure build up in my intake at all, I want more flow with cooler air.

But, back to the topic at hand, (we sort of bumrushed his thread) If you need a name brand intake then buy one, if not go to autozone and buy the parts to build your own for under $30. They have nice stainless tubing, generic or K&N filter on the end and flex tubing to go into your TB/MAF, not a bad set-up at all.

it can be for some, but others will find more performance out of short rams, and long rams even.


air temp will normally be only relative to what it is outside. as air circulates almost everywhere when in motion... under the hood, in the wheel well with the fender liner covering it, etc.



only suggestion on the tubing, try to keep it smooth. alot of the flexi pipes offer turbulence which can slow air velocity. check out vibrantperformance.com ;s catalouge they sell straight , 45, and 90 degree bend tubing in 2.25 to 3 inch in 0.25 increments.